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| Welcome to the Chessington Explorer History section! Here you can find out how Chessington has developed over the years, with an in depth look at old, and new Chessington! Below you can access the menu on every page to help you find your way around, the main page contains a piece on Chessington's Progress, the timeline gives you a quick look at key fates over the years, while the menu below cover's every year since Chessington has been open as a theme park, with in depth pictures and maps from nearly every year. |
| Over the past years Chessington has gone over many changes since its opening in 1987, but the question on the minds of everyone looking at the park, is, is the parks new family come first outlook working? Before its looked at, here’s a quick look at what I feel were the best and worst years for the park, for the different visitors they were trying to attract, since being a more concentrated theme park. Best year for Thrill Seekers: 1999 The reason I believe this was the best year for the park for thrill seekers, was the amount of more thrilling rides, to the amount of family/children attractions. 1999 obviously saw the impact of Samurai on the park, and with Rattlesnake still fresh from 1998, along with a fully themed Vampire, Rameses Revenge, and Rodeo, and the complete closure of circus world, the options were more in favour of the thrill rides. Worst Year for Thrill Seekers: 2005 Yeap, can't see much argument here, the closure of Samurai in 2004, with the eventual replacement of Peeking Heights, Rodeo closing and Rameses Revenge with several months down time, even with Dragon's Fury, thrill seekers had nothing extra in 2005. Best year for the Family: 2008 Changed this year from 2002, 2008 really sees the park concrete as a family place, although maybe a little bit too family with lack of thrilling rides, Chessington's massive save for years of under investment was the Sealife Center, which, no matter how temporary, is a fantastic addition to the park. Along with the few thrill rides, family adventures in Beanoland and Land of the Dragons still strong, its the best year at the park for families. Worst year for the Family: 1999 The best year for the thrill seekers has to be the worst for the family, for the very same reasons! Lots of thrill rides, No Circus, depleted animals removed gradually in previous years, and some old children’s rides in the clown coaster, certainly the year before Beanoland main investment had gone into Thrill Seekers. Best year for the Park: 2000 Yeap with investment all over the park, regardless what is said about Beanoland, its a smart choice, and even with Vampire's few breakdowns, the line up for this year for thrill seekers and family could be regarded as the best, this included continuation of work in decoration (Rameses Revenge, previous year Black Buccaneer and Vampire) and Beanoland. Worst year for the park: 2001 Although reported early, it seemed a late decision to close Vampire for 2001, and it’s difficult to close something, that is, that obvious of still being there. Little was known at the time if it was being removed or revamped, along with Vampire, many saw attraction like Forbidden Tomb, and the Animal Land, as falling apart, and unfortunately, the Bash Street Bus wasn't going to help the complaints. It's very difficult to make a list like above, and I’m sure that not everyone will agree, but even with big years like 1987, 1990, and 1995, I feel the park is still making progress, and if the parks best year was 10 years ago, that wouldn't say much for its improvement. The final thing that crops up a lot, is the new direction for the park, families, although sitting, looking closely at the park since its opening, hasn't this always been the case? I mean yes, Thorpe Park is now a Thrill Park, but did Chessington ever have anything like that in the first place, no. Its fair to say that when Chessington opened it had some great rides, with possibly the most thrilling being Magic Carpet and that was more through fear of falling out than speed! Even when Vampire opened, right the way up to 1995, there was no ride that inverted, not even a ride with a 1.4m height restriction. Instead there was Vampire, even at the time, a fun, well themed rollercoaster, Bubble Works, 5th Dimension, the low restricted Smugglers Galleon, Dragon River, and Circus World with Juggler, even taking the fact that Vampire was more of a thrilling ride, Chessington, was a family park. 1995 brings the first thrill ride to Chessington (and people say its still not now) and by this time, real thrilling roller coasters, in Shockwave, Big One, and of course Nemesis were shadowing Vampire as an entry level coaster. Then in 1999, Samurai really showed what flat rides are about, in a time when they were getting more popular, and much more advance, Chessington struck hard to bring the best in. Was it a thrill park? Alton Towers, classed as a thrill park, had Nemesis, Oblivion, Corkscrew, and a clone of Rameses, which again, means Chessington can’t be with Rattlesnake and Vampire heading the rollercoaster outings. But, with those in mind, Chessington was the place to be, because it had something for everyone. So why the negativity of recent installation? It was obviously disappointing seeing Samurai leave, but should that ride have replaced the Magic Carpet in the first place? Although it’s a question I don't want to answer, if Thorpe Park hadn't installed what’s it’s installed since 2001, would Chessington be getting so much stick? Well it never used to, and the years 1991, 92, 93, 96, 97, saw little in the way of major investment, but still the park stayed on top, yet 2002, and 2004 saw massive investment, and people accused the park of going backwards! Obviously now in 2008, with only a Sealife Center to show off, Chessington does need to add some investment in the next few years. What’s changed is now the park is advertising there family vision, and there’s no doubt that not only have expectations gone up for rides, and ride design, so has the need for facilities, and ease of use, and that little extra in terms of shows, and animals, which, Chessington has always been number one at doing. OK its still to be seen that maybe Chessington have under estimated what even a 8 year old would like to ride, with rides like Griffins Galleon and Sea Dragons, but if there's still big things on the horizon for Chessington, and the South’s number 1 theme park is still up to win. |
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